Glass door locking construction



Sept. 13, 1960 H. MATZIKIN ET AL GLASS DOOR LOCKING CONSTRUCTION Filed July 23, 1956 United States Patent GLASS DOOR LOCKJN G CONSTRUCTION Filed July 23, 1956, Ser. No. 599,368

1 Claim. (Cl. 70-451) This invention relates generally to doors for buildings or similar enclosures and more particularly to tempered glass door locking construction. Because the manufacture of glass doors is a specialized and highly technical and diflicult technique they are currently available from only limited sources. The glass doors are ordinarily or /2 thick, weighing 30.1bs. per sq. ft. and lbs. per sq. ft., respectively. The doors are made of tempered glass, ordinarily cut to size and the desired holes, cutouts, or indentations being placed therein prior to tempering. Because the doors are tempered they will take a spread distributed load, but concentrated pressure, as for example with an ice pick, can pierce the outside tempered layer and this will cause an implosion. Such implosion normally results in the glass of the door breaking up into fine rock salt type particles which ordinarily do not cut. Because of this fragility, the glass doors are available and sold with the exact shape determined by the original manufacturer caused by the limitations of the glass and the tempering process or with the hardware secured'in place using a cement or low melting point alloy to cushion or distribute the localized stress produced by the hardware such as door handles, locks and/or hinges either during installation or use.

This situation presents a number of disadvantages among which are the following: Since production and delivery time are slow, relatively large inventories are maintained which is uneconomic because of the high cost of the doors. This is doubly important since in the event of an accidental breakage, a new door must be immediately installed for adequate protection of the real property. Secondly, the prefabrication of door and hardware as a unit undesirably limits the design, and interferes with architectural freedom, particularly in a field where it is important, since glass doors, because of their high cost, are in the main confined to custom designed store, apartment, terminal and office building entrances. A third disadvantage lies in the condition that present locking structure is principally placed in the lower or upper edge of the door. When in the upper edge, a ladder or similar elevation is needed, and when in the lower edge inconvenient stooping is necessary. Furthermore ice, snow or rain produces a harmful effect upon the locking mechanism. A fourth disadvantage arises from the fact that where a pair of doors swing about axes at their outer edges the locking hardward must catch at their adjoining edges.

It is therefore among the objects of the present invention to provide glass door locking construction substantially eliminating the disadvantages outlined above, and others, and which increases the utility of glass doors.

Another object herein lies in the provision structure of the class described wherein special operation may be obtained to eliminate the need for a doorman.

These objects and other incidental ends and advantages will more fully appear in the progress of this disclosure and be pointed out in the appended claim.

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In the drawing, in which similar reference characters designate corresponding parts throughout the several views:

Figure 1 is a view in perspective showing an embodiment of the invention.

Figure 2 is an enlarged fragmentary View of the right hand door of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is an enlarged exploded perspective view of structure of Figure 2 as seen from the opposite side of the door.

Figure 4 is an enlarged elevational view of the left hand door of Figure 1.

In accordance with the invention, the door construction generally indicated by reference character 10 comprises broadly a door element 12, a first body element 14, a second body element 16, a lock element 18, a lock frame element 20, and a plate element 22.

The door element 12 may be of usual construction having the prefabricated cut out 24 including central cut out 26, upper indentation 28 and lower indentation 30. The

portions 32 and 33 are predetermined by the manufacturer of the glass door for technical stress reasons. The door element has upper and lower edges 38 and 39 (Figure 1), a pivot edge 40, swinging edge 41, a relatively front surface 42 and a rear surface 43.

The first and second body elements 14 and 16 are substantially similar except that they are right and left hand as viewed in Figure 3. The element 14 has a swinging edge 45 and an inward flange 46 which is of a length (vertical height) equal to or greater than the distance between the portions 36 and 37 and of a Width of substantially one-half the'thickness of the door element 12. Element 14 has a pair of vertically aligned and spaced openings 47 and 48 through which bosses 49and 50 pass, an opening 51 through which the lock cylinder 52 may pass, and an opening 53 through which the shaft 54 of the latch handle 55 may pass. The normally outer surface 56 may have any desirable surface decoration, and the outer free edges 57 may have any desired outline, and the surface 56 has a recess 58 adapted to receive the lock frame element 20.

The body element 16 has a swinging edge 65 and an inward flange 66 which is of a length (vertical height) equal to or greater than the distance between the portions 36 and 37 and a width of substantially one-half of the door thickness (element 12). Element 16 has a pair of vertically aligned and spaced openings 67 and 68 through which pass the screws 69 and 70, an opening 71 through I which the lock cylinder 52 may pass, an opening 73 through which the shaft 54 may pass, surface 76, and edge 77.

The lock element 18 may have the cylinder 52, a main bolt 72 (Figure 2), a safety bolt 75, latch actuating sleeve 78, and bolt support 79. By releasing the screws 80, the lock element 18 may be removed as a unit for servicing, replacement or substitution of one having different operating characteristics. The bolts 72 and may coact with suitably shaped depressions or fiat surfaces either in the usual door jamb- (not shown) or in the companion door element 112.

The plate element 22 may be secured in place upon the lock frame element 20 by suitable means such as the screws 21 and while shown as a simple planar oblong sheet, the same may have any desired achitectural or utilitarian exterior including a hood shaped or overhanging portion where it is desired that the door may be pulled.

For the purpose of avoiding needless repetition certain of the parts on the companion door 112 are given the Elma reference characters with the addition of the pre- As seen in Figure 1 the doors 12 and 112 are usually mounted to swing on the corner hinges 11, 13 and 111,

113 in a door frame 15. An example of the versatility of the present construction is as follows: Suppose that in the door frame 15 there have been two ordinary swinging glass doors (not shown) with locks which coacted with either the sill 17 or the upper cross bar 19 of the frame 15'. One of the ordinary doors could be removed and replaced with a replacement door such as the door 12. The handle and locking structure may be quickly installed as shown in Figure 3. The lock frame element 20 and plate element 22 are assembled by means of the screws 21. (Under certain conditions the lock frame element 20 and the plate element 22 may be fabricated as a single unit.) The desired action lock element 18 may be connected to the frame element 20 before or after the place element 22 is in place. The first and second body elements are juxtaposed upon the door element 12 with the flanges 46 and 66 aligned and mating, While the openings 67 and 68 are aligned with the threaded holes in the bosses 49 and 50. The engagement and tightening of the screws 69 and 70 draws the parts in position upon the door element. The bosses 49 and 50 are positioned within the portions 34 and 35. The shaft 54 may have been previously engaged in the sleeve or hub 78 and if so, the handle 55 may now be connected thereto. Similar assembly takes place on the door element 112 but the lock frame element 120 has a main bolt receptor 74.

During the daytime, a superintendent of a building may insert his master key from the outside of the building at 252a and open the door. A second insertion of the master key at 25212 will secure the bolt 72 in its innermost position. All day long the door 12 will act as an ordinary swinging door. At night, the superintendent, now inserts his master key at 252bto release the bolt 72 to its normal spring urged outward position. A tenant may now enter the building with his tenants key inserted at 252a, and may leave the building by moving handle 55.

We wish it to be understood that we do not desire to be limited to the exact details of construction shown and described for obvious modifications will occur to a person skilled in the art to which the present invention relates.

We claim:

For use with a glass door having a swinging edge and an indentation extending inwardly from said swinging edge, a locking construction comprising: a first body element having a smooth planar inner surface positionable on one surface of said door, a second body element having a smooth planar inner surface positionable on an opposite parallel surface of said door, said body elements partially covering said indentation; a lock frame having a boss thereon, said lock frame being positioned on the outer surface of one of saidbody elements, said boss extending through said last mentioned body element and into said indentation, and a screw extending through the other body member and said indentation to threadedly engage said boss; each of said body elements having a right angularly disposed elongated flange along one edge thereof, said flanges extending toward each other in a common plane to at least partially cover said swinging edge of said door at said indentation.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 316,760 Diehlmann Apr. 28, 1885 640,217 Moore Jan. 2, 1900 897,686 Voight Sept. 1, 1908 963,450 Lowe July 5, 1910 1,483,333 Capece Feb. 12, 1924 2,568,273 Clark Sept. 18, 1951 2,700,887 Oxhandler et a1. Feb. 1, 1955 2,770,964 Bigelow Nov. 20, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 262,817 Germany July 22, 1913 OTHER REFERENCES German application Serial No. G97 87, printed May 24, 1956 (K1. 68c 10, 2 pp. spec., I sht. dwg.). 

